In most character recognition applications, each written character is analyzed and an attempt to identify the character is made. As anyone who has used character recognition knows, this process can take quite some time. For example, performing character recognition on a 15-page document may take up to a minute in commonly-used character recognition software. It would be beneficial if this time period could be reduced. Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for performing character recognition that is faster than prior-art techniques.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.